


the moirai stumbled but she fell

by orphan_account



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gwen 10, anodite Ben, edgy kid shows., why did I do this. it's 1am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 18:48:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11386224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: fate can screw up like us. it's not always a good thing. gwen got the omnitrix. unrelatedly, she's an orphan.





	the moirai stumbled but she fell

**Author's Note:**

> why do I make edgy versions of kid's shows?

Sometimes, fate stumbles like the rest of us. Things meant to be are suddenly off by a hair, destinies aligned now parallel. A single moment can switch and the entire world changes.

 

Gwen gets the omnitrix on that fateful day. Or night, rather. Later on, a potentially pleasant life with both parents still living is stolen from her. She’s twelve when her brother Kenneth leaves for New York and he’s already too entrenched in life there to take her in at thirteen when their parents are killed in a car crash. He comes to the funeral, hugs her tightly, and said he’s sorry she can’t come live with him. Aunt Sandra and Uncle Carl take her in, though. She’s too dragged down by grief to rise to Ben’s poor attempt to get her lively again. He doesn’t give up, but his approach changes. He hears when she leaves the bare walls of the guest room to get a drink, and tells her which cabinet the cups are in. It’s small things that ease the ever present lump in her throat.

She’s fifteen when the fear of losing family again rises in her throat. Ben waits at her judo session all day, claiming something’s up with Grandpa Max. As she chews her already short nails in the locker room, she tries to calm her anxiety; nobody’s dead, Gwendolyn. Not dead, she finds. But possibly close. He brought the omnitrix, just in case, its green hourglass frightening and exhilarating at once. She takes it, staring at it.  
“You do realise,” she said, beginning to calm down, “That this still means you raided my room.”  
“Yeah, but I did so-”  
“The Omnitrix ain’t yours. Give it up.”  
The unasked question is answered there and then. Gwen steels herself for a fight. “No.” Without a word, she and Ben sprint off to a corridor of the gym. When the door at the end doesn’t open, she hopes this doesn’t end as she thinks it might.  
“Give it to me. Now!”  
“Or what?” She pipes, praying that he won’t do something she isn’t expecting.  
“Or this,” he said, ripping off a mask. In the bad lighting, she can’t see much, and she’s really glad. His face is like some clay mold made by a three-year old and Gwen’s sure she’s gonna see it in her nightmares.  
“Oh, that’s so creepy,” Ben taunts. Gwen tries to sneak off but the alien shoots at her feet.  
“Don’t make me use it on you.”  
“Who’s making?” She huffs.  
“Not fish sticks over here,” Ben said, steps of light appearing to give him a height advantage. His hands glow magenta. The creature shoots his gun, Ben blocking the blasts before sending one down to break over him. He reaches out, catching the creature in a beam before yanking it back to hold him aloft.  
“You’re getting really good at that stuff,” Gwen said, staring at the makeshift body-cuff.  
“Thanks,” he said, a hint of a smile.  
Gwen turns to the alien. “I’ve got questions. You’re gonna answer them.”  
The alien looks at her with somehow palpable disdain. “You don’t wanna play with me, kid. I’m a duly deputized agent of the plumbers.”  
“Big whoop, so was my Grandpa Max.”  
“Max… Tennyson? He was helping me on a case.”  
“We’re looking for him,” Ben said.  
“Wait… He’s your grandfather? You’re the legendary Gwen Tennyson?”  
“Didn’t know I was legendary.”  
“I thought you had just stolen the omnitrix from the Rust Bucket. Guess I owe you an apology. Maybe if you get me out of this thing, we can find your granddad together?”  
Ben shrugs and lets him down. Gwen doesn’t look up, she stares at the watch instead.  
“Are you sure?” He asks, pulling her out of her trance. Gwen pulls the familiar device around her wrist.  
“I’m sure.

Gwen’s starting to get antsy hiding behind crates in a train yard. Evidently, Ben is too,  
“What are we doing again?”  
“Stakeout. Tip from your grandfather said the Forever Knights, a group of criminals-”  
“Who trade in alien technology, yeah, we know. We’ve gone against them before.”  
“They’re supposed to show up tonight to get a new shipment.”  
“Who from?” Ben asks.  
“Don’t know. We’re here to find out.”  
The sound of cars driving up cuts the conversation short. The alien puts a finger to his lips.  
A few trucks drive up, before a muscle car soon pulled in. The door opens, a dark figure stepping out.  
“That’s Kevin!” Ben whispers.  
“You know him?”  
“Kevin Levin. He’s got superpowers, I fought him all the time when we were kids,” Gwen said.  
“I thought he was in the Null Void?” Ben mumbles.  
The deal proceeds. “Money’s here,” Kevin said. One of the men nods, signalling to bring the weapons out.  
“Well, he’s brokering the deal,” The alien said.  
Neither Tennyson was surprised.  
Kevin goes on to show off the weapon. Part way through his speech, he blasts a train to bits.  
“Those lances are level five technology! Planet Earth has only level two!”  
“Guess we’re not whispering any more,” Gwen mutters.  
The alien walks out from hiding, pulling out two guns to aim at the men. “Hand above your heads, air breathers. By authority of the Plumbers, you’re all busted.”  
That’s when shit hit the fan. All the men were found to be not men, but rather aliens.   
“Oh, that’s so creepy.”  
“Isn’t it?”  
They began to crowd the three, coming further and further.  
“Back off,” The plumber shot at the ground, lighting a barrier of fire. The aliens scrambled back.  
“What now?” Gwen asked.  
“Standoff.”  
“I doubt that. The others are right behind us.”  
Everyone began to come closer.  
“We’re so toast,” Ben murmurs.  
“No, we’re not.” Gwen fiddled with the watch before pushing down, only for the Omnitrix to give a whine and glow blue.  
Wrong about when shit hit the fan. That was now.  
“Gwen!”  
“It’s not me! C’mon, you dumb watch,” She said, slamming the watch over and over.  
“We’re running out of time,” Ben said, turning back and forth between each enemy.  
The watch, despite Gwen’s constant turning and pressing of the dial, continued to fail. “Yeah, I got nothing.”  
“Maybe I can do something,” Ben lit up his hands, knocking back the Forever Knights with the light. Before long, they got back on their feet and began shooting. Ben held up shields, but they were quickly breaking. Gwen ran past, still messing with the watch as she went.  
The plumber and Ben were getting trapped in alien phlegm, and the watch still wasn’t helping.  
“Fuck’s sake..” Suddenly the watch lit up green, changing form. It was sleeker now, with a different dial. Gwen spun the dial, nothing ringing a bell. “Well… at least it works,” she pressed down. Where there had been a blue flannel and a tank top, there was now… Grass? Whatever. And she smelled. God, she hoped this fight ended quickly.   
She ran towards Ben and the plumber, seeing them crowded by aliens. “I’m not losing anyone else,” she muttered. The aliens ran at her, and she punched them down. The rest took off for the truck, trying to run Gwen down. She pulled a pole out of the ground, using it to knock the truck over. “Man, this always was a stress-reliever,” she said.  
Suddenly, a shot hit her. You couldn’t tell by how fast she grew back. The Forever knights kept shooting to no avail. Until one caught her arm, slicing it clean off.  
“Okay, fuck you guys.” Gwen had to look twice when she saw it trying to grow back onto her. She grinned. “Ohh, you’re in for it now.” She began mowing down Forever Knights, knocking them into crates and straight onto their asses.  
Kevin then leaped down in front of her. “Hey, Tennyson!”  
“Not really the time, Kevin. Can you save it for later?”  
“No. You locked me in the Null Void-”  
“Not me. Besides, you got yourself into that mess.”  
“You still ruined my deal today.”  
“Fair.”  
Kevin leaned down to the train tracks, absorbing metal with his hands.   
“Dumb dogs, new tricks… Still gonna kick your ass.”  
“You can try.”  
He punched Gwen in the gut, his fist trapped in her abdomen. She slammed her hands on his ears like playing cymbals, then kicked him into a crate. While they fought, the Forever Knights and aliens got away. Kevin tossed a crate onto Gwen, thinking he had won.  
“And that’s what happens when you mess with me!”  
“Sike.” Gwen socked him and he stumbled away. He tried to pick up a train, but Gwen blasted twin fireballs at it, blowing it up and knocking Kevin out.  
“Weak.”  
“Gwen. We’ve been stuck in alien spit for like the past 20 minutes. Can you get your grassy ass over here?”  
“Language!”   
“Yeah, suck a chode, fish face.”


End file.
